Rodri on Choosing Barcelona Over Real Madrid: Deco and Hansi's Influence
Real Madrid thought they had him. For much of the summer, inside the corridors at Valdebebas, the feeling was that Rodri would end up in white. The European champion, the 2024 Ballon d'Or winner, the midfield metronome every superclub wants – all signs seemed to point to the Bernabeu.
He chose Barcelona.
In an interview with MD, Rodri finally walked through that decision. No drama, no shots fired. Just a cold, sporting calculation that cut right through one of the fiercest rivalries in football.
A summer without rest
“The first thing I have to say is that I would have liked it to have been two or three weeks of quiet vacation and they were not at all,” Rodri admitted. His holidays turned into a chessboard. Two of the biggest clubs in the world, one of the biggest decisions of his career.
“Many things had to be analysed, and such an important decision had to be made with two of the best clubs in the world,” he said. That line alone hints at the weight of it. This was not a boyhood dream call. This was a career-defining fork in the road.
Rodri framed it in purely football terms.
“In the end I made a decision on the sporting level, so it gave me a little more desire and to understand where I could win and grow more as a player.”
Where could he dominate the ball more? Where would the system be built around his rhythm, his angles, his control of space? Barcelona, with Deco in the sporting director’s chair and Hansi Flick on the bench, clearly sold him a vision that aligned perfectly with his own.
“It was not an easy decision at all, saying no to Madrid is not easy,” he admitted, and that sentence will sting in the capital. Not because he rejected them – that happens – but because he underlines how seriously he took their offer.
“And above all that, they behaved exemplarily with me. In the end, Deco and Hansi convinced me.”
That last line is the pivot. Real Madrid did almost everything right. Barcelona simply did more.
Mourinho’s call – and the call back
Rodri also lifted the curtain slightly on his talks with Jose Mourinho, now in charge at Real Madrid. The Portuguese coach has built a career on persuading elite players to buy into his projects. This time, his charm offensive fell short, but not for lack of effort.
“I don't think it's his thing to reveal a private conversation,” Rodri said, carefully protecting the details, “but he obviously expressed his desire for me to join, and he told me what I could bring to the team. The treatment was very good.”
That is Mourinho in a sentence: direct, specific, personal. He laid out Rodri’s role, his importance, the structure he would anchor. Madrid were not dabbling here; they were all-in.
Rodri did something not every player would do in his position. When the decision was made, he picked up the phone.
“When I made the decision, I also called him to thank him for his interest and treatment. I think he's a great coach, he's already shown it wherever he's gone in his great stages and Real Madrid are going to be a tough opponent for this league.”
Respect both ways. No bitterness, no bridge burned. Just the uncomfortable reality that one of the world’s best midfielders chose to lead the project on the other side of the Clasico divide.
Ballon d'Or boycott “not a factor”
One detail always hovered around this saga: Real Madrid’s decision to boycott his 2024 Ballon d'Or victory. The club stayed away from the ceremony, a move widely read as a protest against the award going to a Barcelona player.
Rodri shut that door firmly. He made it very clear that the boycott played no part in his thinking. No revenge angle. No emotional payback. Just football.
In the end, that might be the most unsettling part for Madrid. This was not a decision swayed by politics, trophies on the shelf, or noise from the stands. It was a player at the peak of his powers, looking at two giants and deciding where his game, his growth, and his influence would reach their highest level.
Barcelona won that argument. Real Madrid now have to live with the fact that the man they chased all summer will be dictating games in their league, in their title race, in their Clasicos – just not in their colours.
